• Major search overhaul at Footnote.com. Users get a great deal more control over the process.
• 2008 User Meetings – preliminary schedule. Six cities with a lot of the midwest – St Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas / Ft Worth, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia make the list.

Enhancements to Search Go Live

On Friday a new search paradigm went live at Footnote. Briefly, they’ve replaced the “free text” search with a “faceted” search. Visitors to the site have much more control over search results than before. It’s especially helpful with common names, where some “winnowing” is very helpful. Further, names can be decomposed into first names and surnames.

There’s a blog post about it on the Footnote blog. The example there shows a good insight into the goals of the site developers.

One of the most frequent questions that people ask as Footnote, when we do demos and talks around the country, is about search functionality. The initial offering was somewhat spartan in that regard – the zen haiku search, where no results left you feeling poetic. The new functionality is a big step in the right direction. Try it and see if you don’t agree.

2008 Footnote User Meetings Schedule proposed

Footnote holds meetings with users who live in a particular area. These are generally planned to coincide with travel by Footnote team members so that a special trip isn’t required. The tentative schedule for 2008 follows.

25-Mar. Minneapolis
12-Apr. St Louis.
26-Apr. D/FW.
16-May. KC.
26-Jun. LA.
3-Sept. Philly.

The meetings may turn out to be a day earlier or later than these dates. Still, it’s something to plan for. A bit of face time with Footnote staffers, a chance to have your say about the site, the business practices, the content … members might want to show up for that. It’s likely that users will see an announcement and a sign-up link on the Footnote blog sooner or later.

The main purpose of these meetings is to give members a chance to meet Footnote people face-to-face. It’s easy to imagine a company as some monolithic black box. Footnote staff hope to dispel any preconceptions that we aren’t like other people. We are just like other people. Only more so. If you live near one of these towns, make plans to meet us, and to tell us what you think of the site, and what you’d like to see.